The Martial Unity

As Rui pondered about the solutions he would need to develop against Fae, Kane and Nel, a voice called out to him.

"Apprentice Rui Quarrier." A staff member addressed. "Your second match has been arranged. Please follow me."

Rui nodded, turning to the others. "Catch you guys later."

They bade him farewell and good luck, before heading to his match to spectate. Rui was on their list of greatest threats in the Academy, and none of them wanted to miss seeing how strong he'd gotten. Only Kane had caught the latter half of his first fight having finished early, the rest were still fighting.

Rui glanced at his opponent, recognizing him. "Gheelain Marckle, it's been a while."

"Rui Quarrier." He nodded. "Today is the day I beat you."

Gheelain was a senior Martial Apprentice that Rui had run into many times. He was a grappling specialist, specifically, a strangling specialist.

He excelled at restricting the blood flow and breathing of his opponents when grappling with them. Rui immediately applied the VOID algorithm and subsequently began thinking about how to adapt to and defeat him. The answer of course, was the same as in the past.

The first principle his adaptatively evolved fighting style would need to have was maintaining distance. The intrinsic weakness of grapplers were that they had a short range outside of which they were unable to attack their opponent with grappling.

Thus, the first trait that the adapted fighting style that the VOID algorithm would create was being a long-range fighting style.

The second trait it needed to possess was difficulty in intercepting. As a grappler, Gheelain possessed anti-striking countermeasures without a doubt. The most common countermeasures were intercepting and grasping strikes forcibly turning the battle into a grappling contest.

Thus, Rui needed to increase the swiftness and agility of the strikes to make it harder for it to be intercepted, at the cost of power.

was purely counter-offensive whereas Gheelain was an aggressive offensive grappler, making it much harder to avoid playing onto his opponent's playing

to take him down. Shooting maneuvers were essentially charging bullrushes aimed at grabbing one's target for a takedown or a throw. His adapted style would need to use Primordial Instinct, Balanced Direction, Parallel Walk and Phantom Step to avoid

fourth trait his adapted style needed to have was a stamina advantage. If the fight would turn into a cat and mouse chase, then having a stamina advantage was vital. Since

and focus on simpler low-risk low-energy Vital Pressure attacks that would eventually allow him to win. He ought to drastically cut down on Outer Convergence which was extremely energy-intensive as well, and use it only when an opening presented itself.

your stances."

all of the traits that he and the VOID

to the body. This was a stance that best catered to the four

other, crouched with both elbows at his ribs and open-handed arms that were looking an opportunity to grab and choke Rui. He intended to dash after Rui the moment the match

The supervisor commenced the

DASH

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out to grab him, only to clutch at air. The Primordial Instinct technique ensured that such

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chased after Rui yet again, not willing to

WHOOSH

feinted him into

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quickest combo jabs with Vital Pressure, exploiting the opening the failed shoot

remarkable how often his fighting style changes, almost like he doesn't have a fixed Martial Art or

moment we become Martial Apprentices because that style is our greatest affinity, and we would be extremely weak if we fought with a drastically

of hope in his eyes. Rui had already begun bullying a senior Martial Apprentice while holding back. Only someone of this caliber could beat

WHOOSH

POW POW POW